I rise to strongly oppose this Continuing Resolution. I cannot support a bill that flies in the face of responsible governing. This is pure incompetence. How many times are we going to do this? This is our fifth short-term spending bill since September. How many times will we punt our priorities, lurching from one self-inflicted wound to another? That is exactly what this CR represents—a failure to govern.

It is shameful that yet again, we are neglecting our core obligation as a Congress: funding government programs. We should be voting on new topline spending levels for 2018 that alleviate sequestration for both nondefense and defense spending.

We should have spent the last few months fulfilling our responsibility as legislators by writing bipartisan bills to fund programs that help the middle class and the vulnerable, support evidence-based scientific research, and help working people get the skills they need to find good jobs with good wages. Instead, the Majority forced through their tax scam for millionaires and billionaires, and became the first party ever to control both chambers of Congress and the White House and shut down the government.

The Republican Majority has failed to respond to the needs of the American people — instead of working with Democrats to set budget numbers and ensure parity for defense and non-defense spending, they have put our government on auto-pilot. They put services and investments critical to families and our communities at risk, from apprenticeships to education for students with disabilities, child care, afterschool programs that help working families make ends meet, and financial aid for students attending college.

Instead, they are forcing through another CR—this time, cutting $2.85 billion from the Prevention Fund over the next 10 years, on top of the $750 million that they cut in the December CR.

We are talking about cuts to programs that improve our public health immunization infrastructure at a time when the flu is rampant in this country, as well as cuts to Lead Poisoning Prevention programs that seek to prevent and ultimately eliminate childhood lead poisoning.

Programs like these and dozens of others in the Prevention fund save billions of taxpayer dollars by preventing illness and disease before they occur. Cutting the Prevention Fund would cause millions of Americans to suffer for no reason. This is unacceptable—we are talking about people’s lives.

I urge my colleagues to reject this Continuing Resolution, because it fails to meet our obligations to the American people.